Network users and network traffic have increased considerably along with the information explosion. In a network system, how to find the better transmission path between each source-destination pair has become one of the major subjects to network engineers.
Conventionally, different network load balancing routing methods have been provided. For example a min-hop algorithm is provided, wherein the numbers of hops passed by all possible transmission paths between a source node and a destination node are calculated, and the transmission path having the least hop number is selected as the best transmission path between the source-destination pair. This conventional technique is very straightforward. However, it cannot provide better routing result since only the numbers of hops but not the corresponding bandwidths and loads are taken into consideration.
In addition, a widest shortest path (WSP) algorithm has been provided conventionally. This WSP algorithm is derived from the foregoing min-hop algorithm, wherein the shortest transmission path (having the least hops) between a source-destination pair is selected, and if multiple shortest transmission paths are selected, the best transmission path is selected according to the maximum of the minimum link capacity among all candidate paths. Because this WSP algorithm is still based on the rule that the shortest path is first selected, it cannot provide a better routing result for the bandwidth demands and the loads of the shortest paths cannot be both taken into consideration.